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BALD WIN'S BIOGRAPHICAL BOOKLETS 




THE STORY 



OF 



Washington Irving 



FOR YOUNG READERS 



BY 



SHERWIN CODY 




WERNER SCHOOL BOOK COMPANY 
NEW YORK , CHICAGO BOSTON 



48558 



Baldwin's BiograpMcal Booklet Series. 

Biographical Stories of Great Americans 
for Young Americans 

EDITED BY 

James Baldwin, Ph.D. 

IN these biographical stories the lives of great Americans are 
presented in such a manner as to hold the attention of the 
youngest reader. In lives like these the child finds the most 
inspiring examples of good citizenship and true patriotism. 

NOW READY 

Four Great Americans price 

The Story of George Washington . . . .10c 

The Story of Benjamin Franklin .... 10c 

The Story of Daniel Webster 10c 

The Story of Abraham Lincoln ..... 10c 

By James Baldwin 
Four American Patriots 

The Story of Patrick Henry ; 10c 

The Story of Alexander Hamilton .... 10c 

The Story of Andrew Jackson 10c 

The Story of Ulysses S. Grant .... 10c 

By Mrs. Alma Holman Burton 

The Story of Henry Clay ...... 10c 

By Frances Cravens 

Four American Naval Heroes 

The Story of Paul Jones 10c 

The Story of Oliver H. Perry 10c 

The Story of Admiral Farragut 10c 

The Story of Admiral Dewey 10c 

By Mrs. Mabel Borton Beebe 
Four American Poets 

The Story of William Cullen Bryant . . . .10c 

The Story of Henry W. Longfellow . . . 10c 

The Story of John Greenleaf Whittier . . . 10c 

The Story of Oliver Wendell Holmes ... 10c 
By Sherwin Cody 

OTHER VOLUMES IN PREPARATION 



Copyrig-ht, 1899. by Werner School Book Company 
E\)e 5Lakcsttjf ^xtsa 

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
CHICAGO 



TWO COPTR<5 RTTr-B- 


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library 






OffI 






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111 




Register 


Of Copyri 




CONTENTS 







PAGE 

I. His Childhood ...... 5 

II. Irving's First Voyage up the Hudson River 8 

III. A Trip to Montreal . . . . .12 

IV. Irving Goes to Europe . . . . 16 
V. ^^Salmagundi" . . . . . -19 

VI. ^'Diedrich Knickerbocker" . . . 22 

VII. A Comic History of New York . . .26 

VIII. Five Uneventful Years .... 31 

IX. Friendship with Sir Walter Scott . . 35 

X. ^'Rip Van Winkle" 38 

XL Literary Success in England . . -45 

XII. Irving Goes to Spain .... 48 

XIII. ''The Alhambra" 51 

XIV. The Last Years of Irving's Life . . 59 



SECOND COPV, 



6 

doing everything he could for the. American prison- 
ers whom the British held. His wife, especially, 
had a happy way of persuading Sir Henry Clinton, 
and when the British general saw her coming, he 
prepared himself to grant any request about the 
prisoners which she might make. Often she sent 
them food from her own table, and cared for them 
when they were sick. 

When their last son, the .eleventh child> was 
born, on April 3, 1783, the parents showed their 
loyalty by naming him Washington^ after the be- 
loved Father of his Country. 

Six years after this, George Washington was 
elected president, and went to New York to live. 
The Scotch maid who took care of little Washing- 
ton Irving made up her mind to introduce the boy 
to his great namesake. So one day she followed 
the general into a shop, and, pointing to the lad, 
said, ' ' Please, your honor, here's a bairn was 
named after you." Washington turned around, 
smiled, and placing his hand on the boy's head, 
gave him his blessing. Little did General Wash- 
ington suspect that in later years this boy, grown 



to manhood and become famous, would write his 
biography. 

In those days New York was only a small town 
at the south end of Manhattan Island. It extended 
barely as far north as the place where now stand 
the City Hall and the Postoffice. Broadway was 
then a country road. The Irvings lived at lyi^ 
Wilham Street, afterward moving across to 128. 
This is now one of the oldest parts of New York. 
The streets in that section are narrow, and the 
buildings, though put up long after Irving s birth, 
seem very old. 

Here the little boy grew up with his brothers 
and sisters. Atjfgur he went to school. His first 
teacher was a lady ; but he was soon transferred to 
a school kept by an old Revolutionary soldier who 
became so fond of the boy that he gave him the 
pet name of ' ' General. " This teacher liked him 
because, though often in mischief, he never tried 
to protect himself by telling a falsehood, but always 
confessed the truth. 

Washington was not very fond of study, but he 
was a great reader. At eleven his favorite stories 



8 

were ' ' Rob mson Crusoe " and ' * Sindbad the 
Sailor." Besides these, he read many books of 
travel, and soon found himself wishing that he 
might go to sea. As he grew up he was able to 
gratify his taste for travel, and some of his finest 
books and stories relate to his experiences in foreign 
lands. In the introduction to the '' Sketch Book" 
he says, ' ' How wistfully would I wander about 
the pier-heads in fine weather, and watch the 
parting ships bound to distant climes — with what 
longing eyes would I gaze after their lessening 
sails, and waft myself in imagination to the ends 
of the earth!" 



CHAPTER n 



IRVING's first voyage up the HUDSON RIVER 

Irving's first literary composition seems to have 
been a play written when he Vv^as thirteen. It 
was performed at the house of a friend, in the 
presence of a famous actress of that day; but in 
after years Irving had forgotten even the title. 

His schooling was finished when he was sixteen. 



His elder brothers had attended college, and he 
never knew exactly why he did not. But he 
was not fond of hard study of hard work. He 
lived in a sort of dreamy leisure, which seemed 
particularly suited to his light, airy genius, so full 
of humor, sunshine, and loving-kindness. 

After leaving school, he began to study law in 
the office of a certain Heiiry^^Masberton. This 
was in the year 1800. He was admitted to the 
bar six years later ; but he spent a great deal 
more of the intervening time in traveling and 
scribbling than in the study of law. His first 
published writing was a series of letters signed 
" Jimathan- -01dst3de, " printed in his brothers daily 
paper, ''The Morning Chronicle," when the writer 
was nineteen years old. 

Irving s first journey was made the very year 
after he left school. It was a voyage in a sailing 
boat up the Hudson river to Albany; and a land 
journey from there to Johnstown, New York, to 
visit two married sisters. In the early days this 
was on the border of civilization, where the white 
traders went to buy furs from the Indians. Steam- 



lO 

boats and railroads had not been invented, and a 
journey that can now be made in a few hours, then 
required several days. Years afterward, Irving 
described his first voyage up the Hudson. 

' ' My first voyage up the Hudson, " said he, ' 'was 
made in early boyhood, in the good old times before 
steamboats and railroads had annihilated time and 
space, and driven all poetry and romance out of 
travel. . . . We enjoyed the beauties of the 
river in those days. * 

'* I was to make the voyage under the protection 
of a relative of mature age — one experienced in the 
river. His first care was to look out for a favor- 
ite sloop and captain, in which there was great 
choice. 

' ' A sloop was at length chosen ; but she had 
yet to complete her freight and secure a sufficient 
number of passengers. Days were consumed in 
drumming up a cargo. This was a tormenting 
delay to me, who was about to make my first 
voyage, and who, boy-like, had packed my trunk 



* Irving was the first to describe the wonderful beauties of the Hudson 
river. 



II 

on the-first mention of the expedition. How often 
that trunk had to be unpacked and repacked before 
we sailed ! 

' ' At length the sloop actually got under way. 
As she worked slowly out of the dock into the 
stream, there was a great exchange of last words 
between friends on board and friends on shore, 
and much waving of handkerchiefs when the sloop 
was out of hearing. 

' ' . . . What a time of intense delight was 
that first sail through the Highlands ! I sat on 
the deck as we slowly tided along at the foot of 
those stern mountains, and gazed with wonder and 
admiration at cliffs impending far above me, 
crowned with forests, with eagles sailing and 
screaming around them ; or listened to the unseen 
stream dashing down precipices; or beheld rock, and 
tree, and cloud, and sky reflected in the glassy 
stream of the river. 

''But of all the scenery of the Hudson, the 
Kaatskill Mountains had the most witching effect 
on my boyish imagination. Never shall I forget 
the effect upon me of the first view of them pre- 



12 



dominating over a wide extent of country, part 
wild, woody, and rugged; part softened away into 
all the graces of cultivation. As we slowly floated 
along, I lay on the deck and watched them through 
a long summer's day, undergoing a thousand muta- 
tions under the magical effects of atmosphere; 
sometimes seeming to approach, at other tifnes to 
recede; now almost melting into hazy distance, 
now burnished by the hazy sun, until, in the 
evening, they printed themselves against the glow- 
ing sky in the deep purple of an Italian landscape. " 



CHAPTER III 



A TRIP TO MONTREAL 

Soon after returning from this trip, Irving became 
a clerk in the law office of a Mr. Hoffman. There 
was a warm friendship between him and Mr. Hoff- 
man's family. Mrs. Hoffman was his lifelong 
friend and, as he afterwards said, like a sister to 
him; and he finally fell in love with Matilda, one 
of 'Mr. Hoffman's daughters, and was engaged to 
be married to her. Her sad death at the age of 



13 

sevenfeen was perhaps the greatest unhappiness 
of his hfe. He never married, but held her mem- 
ory sacred as long as he lived. 

In 1803 he was invited by Mr. Hoffman to go 
with him to Montreal and Quebec. Irving kept 
a journal during this expedition, and it shows 
what a rough time travelers had in those days. 

Part of the way they sailed in a scow on Black 
River. They were partially sheltered from the rain 
by sheets stretched over hoops. At night they 
went ashore and slept in a log cabin. 

One morning after a rainy night they awoke to 
find the sky clear and the sun shining brightly. 
Setting out again in their boat, they were soon 
surprised by meeting three canoes in pursuit of a 
deer. 

''The deer made for our shore," says Irving in 
his journal. ''We pushed ashore immediately, 
and as it passed, Mr. Ogden fired and wounded 
it. It had been wounded before. I threw off my 
coat and prepared to swim after it. As it came 
near, a man rushed through the bushes, sprang 
into the water, and made a grasp at the animal. 



'4 

He missed his aim, and I jumped after, fell on his 
back, and sunk him under water. At the same 
time I caught the deer by one ear, and Mr. Ogden 
seized it by a leg. The submerged gentleman, 
who had risen above the water, got hold of another. 
We drew it ashore, when the man immediately 
dispatched it with a knife. We claimed a haunch 
for our share, permitting him to keep all the 
rest." 

Irving had one or two experiences with the 
Indians which were not altogether pleasant at the 
time, but which afterward appeared very amusing. 

On one occasion he went with another young 
man to a small island in a river, where he hoped to 
be able to hire a boat to take the party to a place 
some distance farther down the stream. They 
found there a wigwam in which were a number of 
Indians, both men and women; but the Indian 
they were looking for was away selling furs. 

He soon came in, with his squaw, who was 
rather a pretty woman. Both he and she had 
been drinking. While the other young man was 
trying to explain their business, the Indian woman 



15 

sat down beside Irving, and in her half drunken 
way began to pay him great attention. 

The husband, a tall, strapping Hercules of an 
Indian, sat scowling at them with his blanket drawn 
up to his chin, and his face between his hands, 
while his elbows rested on his knees. 

But soon the Indian could no longer endure the 
flirtation his wife was carrying on with Irving. He 
rushed upon him, calling him a ''cursed Yankee, " 
and gave him a blow which stretched him on the 
floor. 

While Irving was picking himself up and getting 
out of the way, his friend went to the Indian and 
tried to quiet him. By this time the feelings of 
the drunken redman had quite changed. He fell 
on the young man's neck, exchanged names with 
him after the Indian fashion, and declared that 
they would be sworn friends and brothers as long 
as they lived. 

Irving hastened to get into his boat, and he 
and his companion made off as quickly as pos- 
sible, having no wish for any further intercourse 
with drunken Indians. 



i6 
CHAPTER IV 

IRVING GOES TO EUROPE 

Irving's health was by no means good, and his 
friends were so alarmed that when he was twenty- 
one they planned a trip to Europe for him. As 
he stepped on board the boat that was to take 
him, the captain eyed him from head to foot and 
remarked to himself, ' ' There's a chap who will 
go overboard before we get across. " 

To the surprise of the captain and other passen- 
gers, however, he did not die, but got much better. 

He disembarked at Bordeaux, in France, and 
joining a merry company, traveled with them, in a 
kind of stagecoach called a diligence. 

Among the company were a jolly little Pennsyl- 
vania doctor, and a French officer going" home to 
see his mother. Iif one of the httle French towns 
wher^^they stopped they had an amusing experi- 
ence, which Irving has described in his journal. 

' ' In one of our strolls in the town of Tonneins, " 
says he, ' ' we entered a house where a number of 
girls were quilting. They gave me a needle and 



17 

: set me to work. My bad French seemed to give 
them much amusement. They asked me several 
questions; as I could not understand them I made 
them any answer that came into my head, which 
caused a great deal of laughter amongst them. 

' ' At last the little doctor told them that I was 
an English prisoner, whom the young French 
officer (who was with us) had in custody. Their 
merriment immediately gave place to pity. 
} ' ' 'Ah, the poor fellow ! ' said one to another, 'he 
is merry, however, in all his trouble. 

'' 'And what will they do with him?' said a young 
woman to the traveler. 

" 'Oh, nothing of consequence?' replied he; 'per- 
haps shoot him or cut off his head. ' 

"The honest souls seemed quite distressed for 
me, and when I mentioned that I was thirsty, a 
bottle of wine was immediately placed before me, 
nor could I prevail on them to take a recompense. 
In short, I departed, loaded with their good wishes 
and benedictions, and I suppose I furnished a 
theme of conversation throughout the village. " 

Years afterward, when Mr. Irving was minister 



i8 

to Spain, he went some miles out of his way to 
visit this town. Says he: 

' 'As my carriage rattled through the quiet streets 
of Tonneins, and the postilion smacked his whip 
with the French love of racket, I looked out for the 
house where, forty years before, I had seen the 
quilting party. I believe I recognized the house; 
and I saw two or three old women, who might 
once have formed part of the merry group of girls; 
but I doubt whether they recognized in the stout, 
elderly gentleman, who thus rattled in his carriage 
through their streets, the pale young English 
prisoner of forty years since. " 

In this manner he wandered about for nearly 
two years. He visited Genoa, the birthplace of 
Columbus, and climbed Mount Vesuvius. He 
dined with Madame de Stael, the famous author 
of ''Corinne." At Rome he met Washington 
Allston, the great American painter, then a young 
man not much older than he. They became good 
friends, and Allston afterward illustrated some of 
Irving s works. Irving was tempted to remain in 



19 

Rome and become a painter like Allston. But 
he finally decided that he did not have any special 
talent for art, and went home to finish his study of 
law. 



CHAPTER V 



* ' SALMAGUNDI ' 

Washington Irving returned to New York, quite 
restored to health; and there he soon became a 
social hero. Trips to Europe were so uncommon 
in those days that to have made one was a dis- 
tinction in itself. Besides, Irving was now a 
polished young gentleman, very fond of amuse- 
ment; and having become a lawyer with little 
to do, he made up his mind to enjoy himself. 
He and his brother Peter, with a number of 
i young men about the same age, called themselves 
*'the nine worthies, " or the ''lads of Kilkenny," 
and many a gay time they had together, — rather 
too gay, some people thought. One of their 
, favorite resorts was an old family mansion, which 
' had descended from a deceased uncle to one of the 



20 

nine lads. It was on the banks of the Passaic 
river, about a mile from Newark, New Jersey. It / 
was full of antique furniture, and the walls were | 
adorned with old family portraits. The place was ' 
in charge of an old man and his wife and a negro 
boy, who were the sole occupants, except when the 
nine would sally forth from New York and en- 
liven its solitudes with their madcap pranks and 
orgies. 

' 'Who would have thought, " said Irving at the 
age of sixty-three to another of those nine lads, 
''that we should ever have lived to be two such 
respectable old gentlemen!" 

About this time Irving and a friend named James 
K. Paulding proposed to start a paper, to be 
called "Salmagundi." It was an imitation of Ad- 
dison's Spectator, and consisted of light, humorous 
essays, most of them making fun of the fads and 
fancies of New York life in those days. The num- 
bers were published from a week to a month apart, 
and were continued for about a year. 

The young men had no idea of making money 
by the venture, for they were then well-to-do; but 



21 



to their surprise it proved a great success, and 
the pubHsher is said to have made ten or fifteen 
thousand dollars out of it. He afterwards paid the 
editors four hundred dollars each. 

Irving now visited Philadelphia, Boston, and^ 
other places. He thought of trying for a govern- 
ment office, and was tempted into politics. His 
description of his experience is amusing enough. 

' ^Before the third day was expired, I was as deep 
in mud and politics as ever a. moderate gentleman 
would wish to be ; and I drank beer with the multi- 
tude; and I talked handbill-fashion with the dema- 
gogues, and I shook hands with the mob — whom 
my heart abhorreth. 'Tis true, for the two first 
days I maintained my coolness and indiff^erence. 
. . . But the third day — ah ! then came the tug of 
war. My patriotism all at once blazed forth, and 
I determined to save my country! O, my friend, 
I have been in such holes and corners; such filthy 
nooks, sweep offices, and oyster cellars!" 

He closes by saying that this saving one's coun- 
try is such a sickening business that he wants no 
more of it. 



22 



CHAPTER VI 

*'DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER '' 

On October 26, 1809, there appeared in the New 
York Evening Post the following paragraph : 

* ^Distressing. 

**Left his lodgings, some time since, and has not 
since been heard of, a small elderly gentleman, 
dressed in an old black coat and cocked hat, by 
the name of Knickerbocker. As there are some 
reasons for believing he is not entirely in his right 
mind, and as great anxiety is entertained about 
him, any information concerning him left either at 
the Columbian Hotel, Mulberry street, or at the 
office of this paper, will be thankfully received. 

** P. S. Printers of newspapers will be aiding the 
cause of humanity in giving an insertion to the 
above. '' 



/ 



Two weeks later a letter was printed in the 
Evening Post, signed *'A Traveler," saying that 
such a gentleman as the one described had been [ 



23 



seen a little above King's Bridge, north of New 
York, * 'resting himself by the side of the road. '' 

Ten days after this the following letter was 
printed : 

' ' To the Editor of the Evening Post: 

** Sir, ---You have been good enough to publish in 
your paper a paragraph about Mr. Diedrich Knick- 
erbocker, who was missing so strangely some time 
since; but a very curious kind of a written book 
has been found in his room, in his own hand- 
writing. Now I wish to notice^ him, if he is still 
alive, that if he does not return and pay off his 
bill for boarding and lodging, I shall have to dis- 
pose of his book to satisfy me for the same. 

'' I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

' ' Seth Handaside, 
''Landlord of the Independent Columbian Hotel, 
Mulberry Street." 

On November 28th there appeared in the adver- 
tismg columns the announcement of ' 'A History of 
New York," in two volumes, price three dollars. 

* Legal term, meaning " to give notice to." 



24 

The advertisement says, '*This work was found j 
in the chamber of Mr. Diedrich Knickerbocker, \ 
the old gentleman whose sudden and mysterious I 
disappearance has been noticed. It is published ■ 
in order to discharge certain debts he has left/ 
behind/' 

When the book was published the people took 
it up, expecting to find a grave and learned his- 
tory of New York. It was dedicated to the New 
York Historical Society, and began with an ac- 
count of the supposed author, Mr. Diedrich 
Knickerbocker. ' ' He was a small, brisk-looking 
old gentleman, dressed in a rusty black coat, a 
pair of olive velvet breeches, and a small cocked 
hat. He had a few gray hairs plaited and clubbed 
behind. . . . The only piece of finery which he 
bore about him was a bright pair of square silver 
shoe-buckles. " The landlord of the inn, who 
writes this description, adds: ''My wife at once 
set him down for some eminent country school- 
master. '* 

Imagine for yourself the astonishment, and then 
the amusement — in some cases even the anger — of 



25 

those who read, to find a most ludicrous descrip- 
Ition of the old Dutch settlers of New York, the 
ancestors of the most aristocratic families of the 
metropoHs of America. The people that laughed 
got the best of it, however, and the book was con- 
sidered one of the popular successes of the day. 
The real author of this book was, of course, Wash- 
ington Irving. When forty years later the book 
was to be included in his collected works he wrote 
an ' 'Apology," in which he says, ''When I find, 
after a lapse of nearly forty years, this haphazard 
production of my youth still cherished among them 
(the New Yorkers); when I find its very name 
become a 'household word,' and used to give the 
home stamp to everything recommended for popu- 
lar acceptance, such as Knickerbocker societies, 
Knickerbocker insurance companies, Knickerbocker 
steamboats, Knickerbocker omnibuses, Knicker- 
bocker bread, and Knickerbocker ice, — and when 
I find New Yorkers of Dutch descent priding 
themselves upon being ' genuine Knickerbockers, ' 
I please myself with the persuasion that I have 
struck the right chord." 



m 



26 



CHAPTER VII ' 

A COMIC HISTORY OF NEW YORK i 

*' Knickerbocker s History of New York" was 

undertaken by Irving and his brother Peter as a. 

• 

parody on a book that had lately appeared, 
entitled ^^A Picture of New York." The two 
young men, one of whom had already proved him- 
self something of an author, were so full of humor 
and the spirit of mischief that they must amuse 
themselves and their friends, and they thought 
this a good way of doing it. There was to be an 
introduction giving the history of New York from 
the foundation of the world, and the main body 
of the book was to consist of * 'notices of the cus- 
toms, manners, and institutions of the city; writ- 
ten in a serio-comic vein, and treating local errors, 
follies, and abuses with good-humored satire. " 

The introduction was not more than fairly begun 
when Peter Irving started for Europe, leaving the 
completion of the work to the younger brother. 
Washington decided to change the plan, and 



27 

merely give a humorous history of the Dutch 
settlement of New York. 

Let us take a peep into this amusing history. 
First, here is the portrait of ^'that worthy and 
irrecoverable discoverer (as he has justly been 
called), Master Henry Hudson," who ''set sail 
from Holland in a stout vessel called the Half- 
Moon, being employed by the Dutch East India 
Company to seek a northwest passage to China. " 

''Henry (or as the Dutch historians call him, 
Hendrick) Hudson was a seafaring man of re- 
nown, who had learned to smoke tobacco under 
Sir Walter Raleigh, and is said to have been the 
first to introduce it into Holland, which gained 
him much popularity in that country, and caused 
him to find great favor in the eyes of their High 
Mightinesses, the Lords States General, and also 
of the honorable East India Company. He was a 
short, square, brawny old gentleman, with a double 
chin, a mastiff" mouth, and a broad copper nose, 
which was supposed in those days to have acquired 
its fiery hue from the constant neighborhood of his 
tobacco pipe. 



28 I 

\ 

' * He wore a commodore s cocked hat on one! 
side of his head. He was remarkable for always^ 
jerking up his breeches when he gave out his, 
orders, and his voice sounded not unhke the brat- , 
thng of a tin trumpet — owing to the number of 
hard northwesters which he had swallowed in the5 
course of his seafaring. f 

'' Such was Hendrick Hudson, of whom we have)/ 
heard so much and know so little. '' 1 

You must read in the history itself the amusing | 
account of Ten Breeches and Tough Breeches. \ 
One of the Dutch colonists bought of the Indians 
for sixty guelders as much land as could be covered 
by a man's breeches. When the time for measur- 1 
ing came Mr. Ten Breeches was produced, and 
peeling off one pair of breeches after another, soon 
produced enough material to surround the entire 
island of Manhattan, which was thus bought for 
sixty guelders, or Dutch dollars. 

In due time came the first Dutch governor, j 
Wouter Van Twiller. 

Governor Van Twiller was five feet six inches in 
height, and six feet five inches in circumference, 



29 

his figure ** the very model of majesty and lordly 
grandeur/' On the very morning after he had 
entered upon his office, he gave an example of his 
great legal knowledge and wise judgment. 

As the governor sat at breakfast an important 
old burgher came in to complain that Barent 
Bleecker refused to settle accounts, which was very 
annoying, as there was a heavy balance in the 
complainant's favor. ' * Governor Van Twiller, as 
I have already observed, was a man of few words; 
he was likewise a mortal enemy to multiplying 
writings — or being disturbed at his breakfast. 
Having listened attentively to the statement of 
Wandle Schoonhoven, giving an occasional grunt, 
as he shoveled a spoonful of Indian pudding into 
his mouth, — either as a sign that he relished the 
dish or comprehended the story, — he called unto 
him his constable, and pulling out of his breeches 
pocket a huge jack-knife, dispatched it after the 
defendant as a summons, accompanied by his to- 
bacco-box as a warrant." 

When the account books were before him, ''the 
sage Wouter took them one after the other, and 



'30 

having poised them in his hands, and attentively 
counted over the number of leaves, fell straight- 
way into a great doubt, and smoked for half an 
hour without saying a word; at length, laying his 
finger beside his nose, and shutting his eyes for a 
moment, with the air of a man who had just 
caught a subtle idea by the tail, he slowly took his 
pipe from his mouth, puffed forth a column of 
tobacco smoke, and with marvelous gravity and 
solemnity pronounced, that, having carefully 
counted over the leaves and weighed the books, 
it was found that one was just as thick and heavy 
as the other; therefore, it was the final opinion of 
the court that the accounts were equally balanced; 
therefore, Wandle should give Barent a receipt, 
and Barent should give Wandle a receipt, and the 
constable should pay the costs. " 

It is not wonderful that this was the first and 
last lawsuit during his administration, and that no 
one was found who cared to hold the office of 
constable. 

This is only one of scores of droll stories to be 
found in this most interesting ' ' history. " 



31 
CHAPTER VIII 

FIVE UNEVENTFUL YEARS 

It seems strange that the success of the ' ' History 
of New York " did not make Irving a professional 
man of letters at once. The profits on the first 
edition were three thousand dollars, and several 
other editions were to follow steadily. But though 
he wished to be a literary man, and now knew that 
he might make a fair living by his writings, there 
was still lacking the force to compel him to work. 
He had always lived in easy circumstances, doing 
as he liked, enjoying society, and amusing himself, 
and it was hard for him to devote his attention 
strictly to any set task. 

He applied for a clerkship at Albany, but failed 
to get it. Then his brothers, with whom he must 
have been a great favorite, as he was the youngest 
of the family, arranged a mercantile business in 
which he was to be a partner. Peter was to buy 
goods in England and ship them to New York, 
while Ebenezer was to sell them. Washington 
was to be a silent partner, and enjoy one fifth of 



32 

the profits. At first he objected to taking no 
active part in the business; but his brothers per- 
suaded him that this was his chance to become 
independent and have his entire time for Hterary 
work. 

But five years passed away and httle was accom- 
phshed. This covered the period of the War of 
1812. At first Irving was opposed to the war; 
but when he heard the news of the burning of 
Washington his patriotism blazed forth. ' ' He 
was descending the Hudson in the steamboat 
when the tidings first reached him," says his 
nephew in the biography which he wrote. ' ' It 
was night and the passengers had betaken them- 
selves to their settees to rest, when a person came 
on board at Poughkeepsie with the news of the 
inglorious triumph, and proceeded in the darkness 
of the cabin to relate the particulars: the destruc- 
tion of the presidents house, the treasury, war, 
and navy offices,, the capitol, the depository of the 
national library and the public records. There 
was a momentary pause after the speaker had 
ceased, when some paltry spirit lifted his head 



33 

from his settee, and in a tone of complacent 
derision, * wondered what Jimmy Madison would 
say now/ *Sir, ' said Mr. Irving, glad of an 
escape to his swelling indignation, 'do you seize 
on such a disaster only for a sneer? Let me tell 
you, sir, it is not now a question about Jimmy 
Mdidison' or Jimmy Armstrong.*^ The pride and 
honor of the nation are wounded; the country is 
insulted and disgraced by this barbarous suc- 
cess, and every loyal citizen should feel the 
ignominy and be earnest to avenge it/ 'I 
could not see the fellow, ' said Mr. Irving when he 
related the anecdote, ' but I let fly at him in the 
dark. ' '' 

As soon as he reached New York, Irving went 
to the governor and offered his services. He was 
immediately appointed military secretary and aide 
with the rank of colonel. His duties were neither 
difficult nor dangerous, and he enjoyed his posi- 
tion; but he was glad when the war came to an 
end the following year. 

When the War of 1812 was over, his friend 

* The Secretary of War. 



34 

Commodore Decatur invited him to accompany 
him on an expedition to the Mediterranean, the 
United States having declared war against the 
pirates of Algiers. Irving s trunks were put on 
board the Guerriere, but as the expedition "was 
delayed on account of the escape of Napoleon 
from Elba, he had them again brought ashore, 
and finally gave up his plan of going with Decatur. 
His mind was set on visiting Europe, however, 
and he immediately took passage for Liverpool in 
another vessel. Little did he think that he was 
not to return for seventeen years. 

One of Irving's married sisters was living in Bir- 
mingham, and his brother Peter was in Liverpool 
managing the business in which he was a partner. 
Soon after Washington's arrival, however, Peter 
fell ill, and the younger brother was obliged to 
take charge of affairs. He found a great many 
bills to pay, and very little money with which to 
pay them. He was now beginning to face some 
of the stern realities of life. He worked hard; but 
the black cloud of ruin came nearer* and nearer. 
Other difficulties were added to those they already 



35 

had to face, and finally, in 1818, the brothers 
were obliged to go into bankruptcy. 

It was now absolutely necessary that Irving 
should earn his living in some way. His brothers 
procured him an appointment at Washington ; but 
to their astonishment he declined it and said he 
had made up his mind to live by his pen. 

He immediately went to London and set to 
work on the ' ' Sketch Book, " and during the next 
dozen years wrote the greater number of his more 
famous works. 



CHAPTER IX 



FRIENDSHIP WITH SIR WALTER SCOTT 

While he was worrying over the failure of his 
business, Irving was fortunate enough to make 
some distinguished literary friendships. He had 
already helped to introduce Thomas Campbell's 
works in the United States, and had written a 
biography of Campbell; one of the first things he 
did, therefore, after reaching Liverpool, was to go 
to see the English poet. 




It was not until a little later that he became 
acquainted with Sir Walter Scott, who was the 
literary giant of those times. In 1813 Henry 
Brevoort, one of Irving s most intimate boyhood 
friends, had presented to Scott a copy of the 
*' History of New York, "'and Scott had written a 
letter of thanks in which he said, ' ' I have been 
employed these few evenings in reading the annals 
of Diedrich Knickerbocker aloud to Mrs. S. and 
two ladies who are our guests, and our sides have 
been absolutely sore with laughing. I think, too, 
there are passages which indicate that the author 
possesses powers of a different kind. " 

Irving, too, had been a great admirer of Scott s 
* ' Lady of the Lake. " Campbell gave him a letter 
of introduction to the bard, and in a letter to his 
brother, Irving gives a delightful description of his 
visit to Abbotsford, Scott's home. 

* ' On Saturday morning early, " says he, ' * I took 
a chaise for Melrose; and on the way stopped at 
the gate of Abbotsford, and sent in my letter of 
introduction, with a request to know whether it 
would be agreeable for Mr. Scott to receive a visit 



37 

from me in the course of the day. The glorious 
old minstrel himself came limping to the gate, and 
took me by the hand in a way that made me feel 
as if we were old friends; in a moment I was 
seated at his hospitable board among his charming 
little family, and here I have been ever since. 
. . . I cannot tell you how truly I have enjoyed 
the hours I have passed here. They fly by too 
quickly, yet each is loaded with story, incident, or 
song; and when I consider the world of ideas, 
images, and impressions that have been crowded 
upon my mind since I have been here, it seems 
incredible that I should only have been two days 
at Abbotsford." 

And here is Scott's impression of Irving : ' 'When 
you see Tom Campbell," he writes to a friend, 
'*tell him, with my best love, that I have to 
thank him for making me known to Mr. Washing- 
ton Irving, who is one of the best and pleasantest 
acquaintances I have made this many a day. " 

When the '* Sketch Book" was coming out in 
the United States, and Irving was thinking of 
publishing it in England, he received some advice 



38 

and assistance from Scott; and finally Scott per- 
suaded the great English publisher Murray to take 
it up, even after that publisher had once declined 
it. On this occasion Irving wrote to a friend as 
follows : 

''He (Scott) is a man that, if you knew, you 
would love; a right honest - hearted, generous- 
spirited being ; without vanity, affectation, or 
assumption of any kind. He enters into every 
passing scene or passing pleasure with the interest 
and simple enjoyment of a child." 




CHAPTER X 



*'RIP VAN WINKLE 

Irving s most famous work is undoubtedly the 
** Sketch Book"; and of the thirty-two stories and 
essays in this volume, all Americans love best 
' ' The Legend of Sleepy Hollow " and ' ' Rip Van 
Winkle." 

After the failure of his business, when Irving 
saw that he must write something at once to meet 
his ordinary living expenses, he went up to Lon- 



39 

don and prepared several sketches, which he sent 
to his friend, Henry Brevoort, in New York. 
Among them was the story of Rip Van Winkle. 
This, with the other sketches, was printed in hand- 
some form as the first number of a periodical, which 
was offered for sale at seventy-five cents. Though 
* ' The Sketch Book, " as the periodical was called, 
professed to be edited by ''Geoffrey Crayon, 
Gent," every one knew that Washington Irving 
was the real author. In fact, the best story in the 
first number, ' ' Rip Van Winkle, " was represented 
to be a posthumous writing of Diedrich Knicker- 
bocker, the author of the ' ' History of New York. " 

There are few Americans who do not know the 
story of ''Rip Van Winkle" by heart; for those 
who have not read the story, have at least seen 
the play in which Joseph Jefferson, the great actor, 
has made himself so famous. 

Attached to the story is a note supposed to have 
been written by Diedrich Knickerbocker, which a 
careless reader might overlook, but which is an 
excellent introduction to the story. Says he: 

' 'The story of Rip Van Winkle may seem incred- 



40 

ible to many, but nevertheless I give it my full 
belief, for I know the vicinity of our old Dutch 
settlements to have been very subject to marvel- 
ous events and appearances. Indeed, I have heard 
many stranger stories than this in the villages along 
the Hudson; all of which were too well authenti- 
cated to admit of a doubt. I have even talked 
with Rip Van Winkle myself, who, when I last saw 
him, was a very venerable old man, and so per- 
fectly rational and consistent on every point, that I 
think no conscientious person could refuse to take 
this into the bargain ; nay, I have seen a certificate 
on the subject, taken before a country justice, and 
signed with a cross, in the justice s own handwrit- 
ing. The story, therefore, is beyond the possibil- 
ity of doubt. " 

Rip was truly an original character. He had a 
shrewish wife who was always scolding him ; and 
he seems to have deserved all the cross things 
she said to him, for he had * 'an insuperable aver- 
sion to all kinds of profitable labor- — in other words, 
he was as lazy a fellow as you could find in all the 
country side.'' 



41 

Nevertheless, every one liked him, he was so good- 
natured. **He was a great favorite among all the 
good wives of the village, who took his part in all 
the family squabbles; and never failed whenever 
they talked those matters over in their evening 
gossipings, to lay all the blame on Dame Van 
Winkle.' The children of the village, too, would 
shout with joy whenever he approached. He as- 
sisted at their sports, made their playthings, 
taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and 
told them long stories of ghosts, witches, and 
Indians. Whenever he went dodging about the 
village, he was surrounded by a troop of them, 
hanging on his skirts, clambering on his back, and 
playing a thousand tricks on him with impunity; 
and not a dog would bark at him throughout the 
neighborhood. " 

You can't find much fault with a man who is 
so well liked that even the dogs will not bark at 
him. You are reminded of Irving himself, who 
for so many years was so idle; and yet who, out 
of his very idleness, produced such charming stories. 

^^Rip Van Winkle," continues the narrative, 




''was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well- 
oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat 
white bread or brown, whichever can be got with 
least thought or trouble, and would rather starve 
on a penny than work for a pound. If left to 
himself, he would have whistled life away in per- 
fect contentment; but his wife kept continually 
dinning in his ears about his idleness, his careless- 
ness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family. " 
VThis description is as perfect and as delightful 
as any in the English language. Any one who 
cannot enjoy this has no perception of human 
nature, and no love of humor in his composition. 
In time Rip discovered that his only escape from 
his termagant wife was to take his gun, and 
stroll off into the woods with his dog. '* Here he 
would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree, 
and share the contents of his wallet with Wolf, 
with whom he sympathized as a fellow sufferer in 
persecution. ' Poor Wolf, ' he would say, 'thy mis- 
tress leads thee a dog's life of it; but never mind, 
my lad, whilst I live thou shalt never want a friend 
to wStand by thee!' Wolf would wag his tail, look 



43 

wistfully into his master's face, and if dogs can feel 
pity, I verily believe he reciprocated with all his 
heart. " 

Rip is just the sort of fellow to have some sort 
of adventure, and we are not at all astonished when 
we find him helping the dwarf carry his keg of 
liquor up the mountain. The description of ''the 
odd -looking personages playing at nine-pins'' 
whom he finds on entering the amphitheater, is a 
perfect picture in words; for the truly great writer 
is a painter of pictures quite as much as the great 
artist. 

''They were dressed in a quaint outlandish 
fashion; some wore short doublets, others jerkins, 
with long knives in their belts. Their visages, 
too, were peculiar: one had a large head, broad 
face, and small piggish eyes; the face of another 
seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was sur- 
mounted by a white sugar-loaf hat, set ofif with a 
little red cock's tail. They all had beards of 
various shapes and colors. There was one who 
seemed to be the commander. He was a stout old 
gentleman, with a weather-beaten countenance; he 



44 

wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, high- 
crowned hat and feather, red stockings, and high- 
heeled shoes, with roses in them. . . . What 
seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that though 
these folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet 
they maintained the gravest faces, the most mys- 
terious silence, and were, withal, the most melan- 
choly party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. 
Nothing interrupted the stillness of the scene but 
the noise of the balls, which, whenever they were 
rolled, echoed along the mountains like rumbling 
peals of thunder. '' 

But now comes a surprise. Rip indulges too 
freely in the contents of the keg and falls asleep. 
When he wakes he finds a rusty old gun beside 
him, and he whistles in vain for his dog. He 
goes back to the village; but everything and every- 
body is strange and changed. Putting his hand to 
his chin he finds that his beard has grown a foot. 
He has been sleeping twenty years. 

But you must read the story for yourselves. It 
will bear reading many times, and each time you 
will find in it something to smile at and enjoy. 



45 
CHAPTER XI 

LITERARY SUCCESS IN ENGLAND 

**The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" also purports 
to be written by Diedrich Knickerbocker, and it is 
only less famous than ' 'Rip Van Winkle. " When 
he was a boy, Irving had gone hunting in Sleepy 
Hollow, which is not far from New York city; 
and in the latter part of his life he bought a low 
stone house there of Mr. Van Tassel and fitted it 
up for his bachelor home. 

**The outline of this story," says his nephew 
Pierre Irving, ' ' had been sketched more than a 
year before"^ at Birmingham, after a conversation 
with his brother-in-la'w. Van Wart, who had been 
dwelling on some recollections. of his early years at 
Tarrytown, and had touched upon a waggish 
fiction of one Brom Bones, a wild blade, who pro- 
fessed to fear nothing, and boasted of his having 
once met the devil on a return from a nocturnal 
frolic, and run a race with him for a bowl of milk 
punch. The imagination of the author suddenly 

* That is, before it was finally written and published. 



46 

kindled over the recital, and in a few hours he 
had scribbled off the framework of his renowned 
story, and was reading it to his sister and her hus- 
band. He then threw it by until he went up to 
London, where it was expanded into the present 
legend." 

No sooner had the first number of the ' ' Sketch 
Book," as published in New York, come to Eng- 
land, than a periodical began reprinting it, and 
Irving heard that a publisher intended to bring it 
out in book form. That made him decide to 
publish it in England himself, and he did so at his 
own expense. The publisher soon failed, and by 
Scott s help, as already explained, Irving got his 
book into the hands of Murray. Murray finally 
gave him a thousand dollars for the copyright. 
But when it was published, it proved so very pop- 
ular that Murray paid him five hundred more. 
From that time forward he received large sums 
for his writings, both in the United States and 
in England. 

The * * Sketch Book " was followed by ' ' Brace- 
bridge Hall, " consisting of stories and sketches of 



47 

the same character ; and later by the ' ' Tales of a 
Traveller. " 

In the '' Tales of a Traveller " we are most inter- 
ested in ' ' Buckthorne and his Friends, " a series of 
English stories, with descriptions of literary life in 
London. Most famous of all is the account of a 
publishers' dinner, with a description of the carving 
partner sitting gravely at one end, with never a 
smile on his face, while at the other end of the 
table sits the laughing partner; and the poor authors 
are arranged at the table and are treated by the 
partners according to the number of editions their 
books have sold. 

Irving's father was a Scotchman, and his mother 
was an Englishwoman; and one of his sisters and 
one of his brothers, as we have already learned, 
lived in England for many years. It is not strange, 
then, that England became to him a second home, 
and that many of his best stories and descriptions 
in the ''Sketch Book," ' ' Bracebridge Hall,*' and 
the ''Tales of a Traveller" relate to English 
characters and scenes. 



48 



CHAPTER XII 

IRVING GOES TO SPAIN 

When Irving went to Liverpool in 1815, it was 
his intention to travel on the continent of Europe. 
As we have seen, business reasons made that im- 
possible. But after the publication and success of 
the '* Sketch Book" he was free. He was now 
certain of an income, and his reputation was so 
great that he attracted notice wherever he went. 

In 1820, after having spent five years in Eng- 
land, he at last set out on his European journey. 
We cannot follow him in all his wanderings; but 
one country that he visited furnished him the ma- 
terials for the most serious, and in one way the 
most important part of his literary work. This 
was Spain. Here he spent a great deal of time, 
returning again and again; and finally he was ap- 
pointed United States minister to that country. 

He first went to Spain to collect materials for 
the * ' Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. " 
This was a much more serious work than any- 
thing he had before undertaken. It was, unhke 



49 

the history of New York, a genuine investigation of 
facts derived from the musty old volumes of the 
libraries of Spanish monasteries and other ancient 
collections. It was a record of the life of the 
discoverer of America that was destined to remain 
the highest authority on that subject. Murray, 
the London publisher, paid him over fifteen thou- 
sand dollars for the Enghsh copyright alone. 

In his study among the ruins of Spain, Irving 
found many other things which greatly interested 
him — legends, and tales of the Moors who had 
once ruled there, and of the ruined beauties of the 
Moorish palace of the Alhambra. His imagination 
was set on fire, he was delighted with the images 
of by-gone days of glittering pageantry which his 
fancy called up. Before his history of Columbus 
was finished, he began the writing of a book so 
precisely to his taste that he could not restrain 
himself until it was finished. This was the 
' ' Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada " — a 
true history, but one which reads more like a 
romance of the Middle Ages than a simple record 
of facts. 



50 

This was followed by four other books based on 
Spanish history and legend. It seemed as if Irving 
could never quite abandon this entrancing subject, 
for during the entire remainder of his life he went 
back to it constantly. 

When his great history of the life of Columbus 
was published and proved its merit, Irving was i 
honored in a way he had little expected in his j 
more idle days. The Royal Society of Literature 
bestowed upon him one of two fifty-guinea*^ gold 
medals awarded annually, and the University of 
Oxford conferred the degree of LL. D. 

The ' 'Life of Columbus " was followed in 183 1 by 
the *' Voyages of the Companions of Columbus." 
In the following year Irving returned to the United 
States after an absence of seventeen years. 

He was no longer an idle young man unable to fix 
his mind on any serious work; he had become the 
most famous of American men of letters. When 
he reached New York his countrymen hastened to 
heap honors upon him, and almost overwhelmed 
him with public attentions. 

* Two hundred and fifty dollars. 



51 

CHAPTER XIII 

^*THE ALHAMBRa" 

Just before Irving's return to the United States 
in 1832, he prepared for pubHcation some sketches 
which he had made three or four years before 
while Hving for a few months in the ruins of the 
Alhambra, the ancient palace of the Moorish 
kings when they ruled the kingdom of Granada. 
Next to the stories of ' ' Rip Van Winkle " and the 
' ' Legend of Sleepy Hollow, " nothing that Irving 
has written has proved more popular than this 
volume of ''The Alhambra;" and it has made 
the ancient ruin a place of pilgrimage for tourists 
in Europe ever since. 

In this volume Irving not only describes in his 
own peculiarly charming manner his experiences 
in the halls of the Alhambra itself, but he gives 
many of the stories and legends of the place, most 
of which were told to him by Mateo Ximenes, a 
' ' ' son of the Alhambra, " who acted as his guide. 
This is the way he came to secure Mateo's services: 

' ' At the gate were two or three ragged, super- 



52 

annuated soldiers, dozing on a stone bench, the 
successors of the Zegris and the Abencerrages ; 
while a tall, meagre valet, whose rusty-brown cloak 
was evidently intended to conceal the ragged state 
of his nether garments, was lounging in the sun- 
shine and gossipping with the ancient sentinel on 
duty. He joined us as we entered the gate, and 
offered his services to show us the fortress. 

' ' I have a traveler s dislike to officious ciceroni, 
and did not altogether like the garb of the 
applicant. 

**'You are well acquainted with the place, I 
presume? ' 

*' 'Nobody better; in fact, sir, I am a son of the 
Alhambra. ' 

' ' The common Spaniards have certainly a most 
poetical way of expressing themselves. * A son of 
the Alhambra! ' the appellation caught me at once; 
the very tattered garb of my new acquaintance 
assumed a dignity in my eyes. It was emblematic 
of the fortunes of the place, and befitted the 
progeny of a ruin. '' 

Accompanied by Mateo, the travelers pass on to 



53 

*'the great vestibule, or porch of the gate," which 
'*is formed by an immense Arabian arch, of the 
horseshoe form, which springs to half the height of 
the tower. On the keystone of this arch, is 
engraven a gigantic hand. Within the vestibule, 
on the keystone of the portal, is sculptured, in 
like manner, a gigantic key,'' emblems, say the 
learned, of Moorish superstition and religious belief. 
*'A different explanation of these emblems, 
however, was given by the legitimate son of Alham- 
bra, and one more in unison with the notions 
of the common people, who attach some- 
thing of mystery and magic to everything Moorish, 
and have all kinds of superstitions connected with 
this old Moslem fortress. According to Mateo, it 
was a tradition handed down from the oldest inhab- 
itants, and which he had from his father and 
grandfather, that the hand and key were magical 
devices on which the fate of the Alhambra 
depencjed. The Moorish king who built it was a 
great magician, or, as some believed, had sold 
himself to the devil, and had laid the whole for- 
tress under a magic spell. By this means it had 



54 

remained standing for several years, in defiance of 
storms and earthquakes, while almost all other 
buildings of the Moors had fallen to ruin and dis- 
appeared. This spell, the tradition went on to 
say, would last until the hand on the outer arch 
should reach down and grasp the key, when the 
whole pile would tumble to pieces, and all the 
treasures buried beneath it by the Moors would 
be revealed." 

The travelers at once made application to the 
governor for permission to take up their residence 
in the palace of the Alhambra, and to their aston- 
ishment and delight he placed his own suite of 
apartments at their disposal, as he himself pre- 
ferred to live in the city of Granada. 

Irving's companion soon left him, and he re- 
mained sole lord of the palace. For a time he 
occupied the governors rooms, which were very 
scantily furnished; but one day he came upon an 
eerie suite of rooms which he liked better. They 
were the rooms that had been fitted up for the 
beautiful EHzabetta of Farnese, the second wife 
of Philip V. 



55 

**The windows, dismantled and open to the 
wind and weather, looked into a charming little 
secluded garden, where an alabaster fountain 
sparkled among roses and myrtles, and was sur- 
rounded by orange and citron trees, some of which 
flung their branches into the chambers." This 
was the garden of Lindaraxa. 

* ' Four centuries had elapsed since the fair Lin- 
daraxa passed away, yet how much of the fragile 
beauty of the scenes she inhabited remained! The 
garden still bloomed in which she delighted; the 
fountain still presented the crystal mirror in which 
her charms may once have been reflected ; the 
alabaster, it is true, had lost its whiteness ; the 
basin beneath, overrun with weeds, had become 

the lurking-place of the lizard, but there was 
something in the very decay that enhanced the 

interest of the scene, speaking as it did of the 

mutability, the irrevocable lot of man and all his 

works. " 

In spite of warnings of the dangers of the place, 

Irving had his bed set up in the chamber beside 

this little garden. The first night was full of 



56 

frightful terrors. The garden was dark and sinis- 
ter. ''There was a sHght rusthng noise overhead; 
a bat suddenly emerged from a broken panel of 
the ceiling, flitting about the room and athwart my 
solitary lamp ; and as the fateful bird almost flouted 
my face with his noiseless wing, the grotesque 
faces carved in high relief in the cedar ceiling, 
whence he had emerged, seemed to mope and mow 
at me. 

' ' Rousing myself, and half smiling at this tem- 
porary weakness, I resolved to brave it out in the 
true spirit of the hero of the enchanted house, " 
says the narrator. So taking his lamp in his hand 
he started out to make a midnight tour of the 
palace. 

' ' My own shadow, cast upon the wall, began to 
disturb me, " he continues. ' ' The echoes of my 
own footsteps along the corridors made me pause 
and look around. I was traversing scenes fraught 
with dismal recollections. One dark passage led 
down to the mosque where Yusef, the Moorish 
monarch, the finisher of the Alhambra, had been 
basely murdered. In another place I trod the gal- 



57 

lery where another monarch had been struck down 
by the poniard of a relative whom he had thwarted 
in his love." 

In a few nights, however, all this was changed; 
for the moon, which had been invisible, began to 
' ' roll in full splendor above the towers, pouring 
a flood of tempered light into every court and 
hall." 

Says Irving, ' * 1 now felt the merit of the Arabic 
inscription on the walls — ' How beauteous is this 
garden; where the flowers of the earth vie with 
the stars of heaven. What can compare with the 
vase of yon alabaster fountain filled with crystal 
water? Nothing but the moon in her fullness, shin- 
ing in the midst of an unclouded sky ! * 

' ' On such heavenly nights, " he goes on, ' * I 
would sit for hours at my window inhaling the 
sweetness of the garden, and musing on the check- 
ered fortunes of those whose history was dimly 
shadowed out in the elegant memorials around. 
Sometimes, when all was quiet, and the clock from 
the distant cathedral of Granada struck the mid- 
night hour, I have sallied out on another tour and 



58 

wandered over the whole building; but how differ- 
ent from my first tour! No longer dark and mys- 
terious; no longer peopled with shadowy foes; no 
longer recalling scenes of violence and murder; all 
was open, spacious, beautiful; everything called 
up pleasing and romantic fancies; Lindaraxa once 
more walked in her garden; the gay chivalry of 
Moslem Granada once more glittered about the 
Court of Lions! 

**Who can do justice to a moonlight night in 
such a climate and in such a place? The temper- 
ature of a summer night in Andalusia is perfectly 
ethereal. We seem lifted up into an ethereal 
atmosphere ; we feel a serenity of soul, a 
buoyancy of spirits, an elasticity of frame, which 
render mere existence happiness. But when moon- 
light is added to all this, the effect is like enchant- 
ment. Under its plastic sway the Alhambra 
seems to regain its pristine glories. Every rent 
and chasm of time ; every moldering tint and 
weather-stain is gone; the marble resumes its orig- 
inal whiteness ; the long colonnades brighten in the 
moonbeams; the halls are illuminated with a soft- 



59 

ened radiance — we tread the enchanted palace of 
an Arabian tale ! '' 

When one may journey with such a companion, 
through a whole volume of enchantment and legend 
and moonlight, it is not strange that ' ' The Alham- 
bra '' has been one of the most widely read books 
ever produced by an American writer. 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE LAST YEARS OF IRVING S LIFE 

Some people have thought that Irving's long 
residence abroad indicated that he did not care so 
much as he should for his native land. But the 
truth is, the years after his return to the United 
States were among the happiest of his life; and 
more and more he felt that here was his home. 

In 1835 he purchased, as I have already said, a 
small piece of land on the Hudson, on which stood 
the Van Tassel house mentioned in the ' ' Legend 
of Sleepy Hollow.'' It was an old Dutch cottage 
which had stood for so many years that it needed 



6o 

to be almost entirely rebuilt; and Irving spent a 
considerable sum of money to fit it up as his 
bachelor quarters. First he shared it with one 
of his bachelor brothers; but soon he invited his 
brother Ebenezer to come with his family of girls 
to occupy it with him. 

As the years went on, Irving took a delight in 
this cottage that can hardly be expressed. At first 
he called it ''Wolfert's Roost"; afterward the 
name was changed to ' * Sunnyside, " the name by 
which it is still known. Little by little he bought 
more land, he planted trees, and cultivated flowers 
and vegetables. At one time he boasts that he 
has become so proficient in gardening that he can 
raise his own fruits and vegetables at a cost to him 
of little more than twice the market price. 

During this period several books were published, 
among them a description of a tour on the prairies 
which he took soon after his return from abroad; 
a collection of '' Legends of the Conquest of 
Spain " which had been lying in his trunk since 
his residence in the Alhambra seven or eight years 
before; and ''Astoria," a book of Western life and- 



6i 

adventure, describing John Jacob Astor's settle- 
ment on the Columbia river. 

It was his wish to write a history of the con- 
quest of Mexico, for which he had collected ma- 
terials in Spain; but hearing that Prescott, the 
well-known American historian, was at work on 
the same subject, he gave it up to him. 

The chief work of his later years was his ' ' Life 
of George Washington. " This was a great under- 
taking, of which he had often thought. He was 
actually at work on it for many years, and it was 
finally published only a short time before his death 
in 1859. 

Irving s friends in the United States had long 
wished to give him some honor or distinction. He 
had been offered several public offices, among 
them the secretaryship of the navy; but he had 
declined them all. But in 1842, when Daniel 
Webster was secretary of state, Irving was nomi- 
nated minister to Spain. It was Webster's idea, 
and he took great delight in carrying out his plan. 
After the notification of his nomination had been 
sent to Irving, and Webster thought time enough 



62 

had elapsed for him to receive it, he remarked 
to a friend : ' ' Washington Irving is now the most 
astonished man in the city of New York." 

When Irving, heard the news he seemed to think 
less of the distinction conferred upon him than of 
the unhappiness of being once more banished from 
his home. ' ' It is hard — very hard, " he mur- 
mured, half to himself; '*yet, " he added, whim- 
sically enough (says his nephew), being struck with 
the seeming absurdity of such a view, * ' I must 
try to bear it. God tempers the wind to the shorn 
lamb.'' Later, however, Irving speaks of this as 
the ' ' crowning honor of his life. " 

He remained abroad four years, when he sent in 
his resignation, and hurried home to spend his last 
years at Sunnyside. 

His first thought was to build an addition to his 
cottage, in order to have room for all his nieces 
and nephews. His enjoyment in every detail of 
the 'Work was almost that of a boy. Though now 
an old man, he seemed as sunny and as gay as 
ever. Every one who knew him loved him ; and 
all the people who now read his books must 



6,3 

have the same affectionate fondness for this most 
deHghtful of companions. 

In the United States he met both Dickens and 
Thackeray. His friendship with Dickens was be- 
gun by a letter which Irving wrote t-:^ ^he great 
novehst, enthusiastically praising his work. At 
once Dickens replied in a long letter, fairly bub- 

blii ^jg over with delight and friendship. Here is a 

par^ '-of It: 

/ '' There is no man in the world who could have 
given me the heartfelt pleasure you have. There 
is no living writer, and there are very few among 
the dead, whose approbation I should feel so proud 
to earn. And with everything you have written 
upon my shelves, and in my thoughts, and in my 
heart of hearts, I may honestly and truly say so. 
' ' I have been so accustomed to associate you 
with my pleasantest and happiest thoughts, and 
with my leisure hours, that I rush at once into full 
confidence with you, and fall, as it were, naturally, 
and by the very laws of gravity, into your open 
arms. . . . My dear Washington Irving, I 
cannot thank you enough for your cordial and 



\ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




015 971 320 9 

& 



64 



t:>T tell you what deep and lasting 
gratification it has given me. I hope to have 
many letters from you, and to exchange a frequent 
correspondence. I send this to say so. . . . 

'' A^"':;y3 your faithful friend, 

' ' Charles Dickens. " 

The warmth of feeling which Dickens displav^^ 
on receiving his first letter from Irving, we 1 nust 
all feel when we have become as well acquaini*:ed 
with Irving's works as Dickens was. 

Washington Irving died on the 28th of Novem- 
ber, 1859, at his dear Sunnyside,' and now hes 
buried in a cemetery upon a hill near by, in a 
beautiful spot overlooking the Hudson river and 
Sleepy Hollow. 



Note. — The thanks of the publishers are due to G. P. Putnam's 
Sons for kind permission to use extracts from the Works of Wash- 
ington Irving. 



